I had to go for a win in Game 9: Viswanathan Anand

With the hopes of defending his World chess title getting slimmer after his third defeat to World No 1 Magnus Carlsen here yesterday, Viswanathan Anand said he had no choice but to go for the kill in Game Nine of the World Chess Championship.

Viswanathan Anand

“In general, the match situation did not leave me with much of a choice. I had to give it a shot, I saw a couple of moments where I could exit but I decided to give it a shot. It seemed very dangerous for black,” Anand, who has remained undisputed World Champion since 2007, told reporters.

The ageing Indian legend admitted it was a moment of excitement that led to the blunder. “In a sense it was irresponsible or silly but I spent about 40 minutes on this move and then I suddenly saw his response. And for a second I got excited with this knight move (which was the blunder) and simply missed. As soon as I played the knight move I saw what I had done,” he explained.

“I needed to change the course of the match drastically that’s why I went for this. I had a rest day to get familiar with the lines. Basically this is what I had to do. This was the correct choice so I have no regrets for that,” he added. When asked about his plans for the next three games, Anand said: “Of course, I will try (to go for the kill) but the situation doesn’t look very good.”

Magnus Carlsen

Meanwhile, Carlsen showed to the world that his maturity is not confined to the 64 squares in the post-game conference when the question was posed to him. After a usual poise, came the answer. “Let’s be correct this time”, indicating that the match is not over yet.

The Norwegian agreed that he was even scared for the first time in the match. “Basically all the time I was scared, white’s position looks menacing. I had to calculate as best as could and go with that. It seems that there wasn’t any mate (checkmate),” Carlsen said.

Speaking about his choices in the game, Carlsen said: “We got a very sharp position from the opening. Basically I missed something with e5, in general I would like to block the pawns but there too he has options.”

Looking for the counter play, the Norwegian hit back on the queenside. “I just had to go all out for counter play and there were amazing number of complicated lines, I was not sure what to do. As it happened I had to play the only moves for a long time and fortunately for me he (Anand) blundered.”

Did you know? Magnus Carlsen is a fashion model in his spare time. The Norwegian, at 19, was contracted by international clothing brand G-Star.